It was a bizarre evening in Turkey as the Turkish Super Cup came to a quick conclusion after Fenerbahce players walked off the field just less than 2 minutes in to the final.
Fenerbahce were due to take on rivals Galatasaray in the final back in December but the match was postponed by several months.
The game was originally scheduled to be played in Saudi Arabia but the authorities in Saudi Arabia denied requests to honour Turkish founding father Mustafa Kemal Ataturk; the game was then moved to a new location in the Turkish city of Sanliurfa.
According to reports, the cup holders (Fenerbahce) wanted foreign referees to take charge of the game, and also wanted it moved to a date further from their Europa Conference League quarter-final against Olympiacos which is to be played on Thursday 11th April.
After seeing their requests denied by Turkish authorities, the cup holders took drastic measures.
Fener fielded their Under-19 players in protest of decisions from the Turkish Football Federation.
Before kick-off, Galatasaray players were seen warming up in shirts bearing a photo of Ataturk. The original fixture date, in 2023, was intended to commemorate 100 years since the founding of the Republic of Turkey.
It is reported that Fenerbahce’s plan was not just to call up the under-19s, but also to start the game with only nine players. They seemingly intended to then withdraw players, leaving them with too few to continue and allowing the game to be awarded to Galatasaray as a 3-0 walkover.
Less than a minute was on the clock when a strong Galatasaray XI took the lead through Mauro Icardi. Moments later, Fenerbahce’s youngsters walked off, with the game subsequently abandoned and Galatasaray awarded as winners of the final.
In order to entertain their fans who travelled to watch the match, Galatasaray had to fix a match for the senior team to play against their own reserve team.
Prior to this fixture, Fenerbahce and the Turkish Football Federation hadn’t been on the same page after an incident which happened in a match involving Fener and Trabzonspor on 17th March.
The fans of Trabzonspor invaded the field and attacked the Fenerbahce players resulting in chaos after the match.
The TFF reduced the punishment metted out to Trabzonspor significantly which displeased Fenerbahce as the safety of their players were at jeopardy.
